Customer Experience: Everything Is An Emotional Buy
>>by Joe España
More than
satisfaction, customer emotion is the underpinning factor in the customer experience..
Everything is an emotional buy; everything. Whether buying a cup of coffee, a holiday, a car,
or a house. Our emotional reaction to a service transaction is the fundamental
driver of the purchasing decision. But more importantly, it's a determining
factor in customer retention and loyalty. More than satisfaction, customer
emotion is the underpinning factor in the customer
experience; what it's like to do business with the product or service provider.
Yes of course rational thought, reflection,
consideration of pros and cons may be part of the buying decision, but an
emotion definitely will be. One's feeling, sense, intuition, gut reaction and
experience of the interaction will play a significant part in the buying
decision.
This
example illustrates the point. I was walking through
a shopping centre with a colleague recently. We walked passed a well known
coffee shop and I suggested we stopped and had a coffee. My colleague
immediately responded with a suggestion that we should go further into the
shopping precinct and around the corner to his favourite coffee shop. "I like
it there," he said. Not, they do better coffee, it's less expensive, or I have
a loyalty card, but "I like it there". In fact he liked it so much that he was
willing to take us out of our way in order to get that cup of coffee. This was
an emotional reaction. No rational and logical weighing up taking place; a simple
instinctive response.
Why
is this important?
During the ‘80's and ‘90's customer satisfaction was king. It was based on research suggesting that continued improvement in
product and service quality would mean corresponding increases in satisfaction,
and customer satisfaction was going to ensure a returning purchase. What
further academic research and empirical evidence now shows is that companies
who followed this guideline were surprised to find that even high scores in customer
satisfaction did not guarantee loyalty. Companies have
discovered that loyalty, not satisfaction, drives profits. The economics are
very compelling.
As little as a 5% decrease in customer
defections can mean a doubling of profits. Why? Because loyal customers are not only repeat purchasers, and are more
likely to buy other products and services, they become advocates of the
company. It is nine times cheaper to keep an existing customer than acquire a
new one. The unit operating costs of servicing repeat purchasers is also
reduced. Advocates become the ‘virtual' marketing function of the product or
service provider, recommending it potential new buyers amongst family, friends
and colleagues.
But
there are other reasons based on service recovery. No product or service operation is flawless. Though a company may want
to diminish the incidence, it is almost inevitable that something will go wrong
sometime, however small the error. When customers are positively disposed and emotionally
engaged to service providers, they will be more willing to tolerate a whole
range of service or quality shortfalls. The coffee not quite as tasty or as
frothy as last time, the delayed flight or the clothes shop that has sold out
of the garment you particularly wanted. Customer satisfaction surveying doesn't
quite get to grips with the emotional effect of the service interaction or the
value that customers perceive from it. Satisfaction in many
respects is an outcome. Something happened that created that sense of satisfaction.
And that ‘something' is the experience itself. Satisfaction, or dissatisfaction for that matter, is the result of what
it felt like for the customer in being dealt with by the service provider. Satisfaction
somehow seems such an inappropriate and often inadequate description of what
the customer is experiencing.
Doing business at the emotional level
Recently I went along to my nearest toy retailer to browse for a suitable gift for
my eight year old son and witnessed the sheer joy and marvel experienced by a
small toddler being given a replacement cuddly toy. The parent had gone to the
toyshop to ask if a toy that had not even been purchased at that particular
outlet could be replaced because it had been given as a gift to her two year
old, was one in a series, and the child already had it. The customer service
agent said it wasn't their policy, but left her counter, went to the
appropriate shelving to retrieve the entire set of toys for the child to choose
the one she wanted. The shop lost £3.99 and gained an overjoyed child, an
appreciative parent and a story that will be repeated several times as an
example of superior service. Neither the child nor the mother were merely
satisfied with how they had been treated. The broad smiles on both their faces
gave a real sense of the appreciation and happiness felt (as well as giving a
clue of the potential sense of relief in the
mother in not having to deal with a disappointed child). Even I walked out of the
shop with a bit more of a skip in my step than I had walked in with.
By contrast, a colleague told me of his less that satisfying flight to a client
meeting in which he stupidly (his words) packed all the materials he needed for
his presentation in his checked-in luggage. On arrival the surly lost baggage
clerk explained that his luggage was still at his departure point and that it
would not be with him till later in the afternoon and that if he had needed all
the material then it was his own fault for having checked it in. My colleague
explained to me later that neither dissatisfied or extremely dissatisfied, were
words that accurately described his feelings about the treatment he had
received. Incandescent with fury were probably closer adjectives to the truth
of his emotional reaction.
So
it all seems to rest on the emotional experience. How the engagement with the service provider leaves us feeling - about
them, the transaction and the company as a whole. And even when the system -
the procedures and protocols the service provider is sometimes required to
follow - get in the way, (as they often do in financial services), appreciation
and handling of the customer at the emotional level can make all the
difference.
Only a couple of weeks ago I called by business bank early on a Monday morning
to check that they had reissued and sent a replacement to my business card that
was about to expire. Confirming that they had, I explained that I was about to
leave on a business trip and that I had not yet received it. Straight into
automatic mode, the call centre operator informed me that they would have to
cancel the card that was lost in the post and reissue a new card. This
would take between 3 and 5 working days. Too late, I advised, as I was leaving on my business trip over the
weekend, needed the card, and my existing card would expire mid week. Can't
help you they said. I suggested that rather
than relying on the postal service, they should courier a replacement card and
I would sign for it. This seemed a viable possibility, except they added that
in cancelling the lost card on the Monday would also automatically cancel my
existing card which was still valid till the Thursday.
Increasingly angry and frustrated, I suggested that they should not cancel a card
that was still valid and usable, and enquired how they could creatively suggest
some options to deal with the presenting problem. None were available. After
much haggling and finding I was getting no where with the ‘system', I begged
that they please ensure that the card was delivered in the minimum amount of
time. This they assured me they would do. Frustrated, manacled by their procedures and feeling completely
undervalued, I agreed. Unfortunately, insult was further heaped on a far from
satisfying experience. A very pleasant voice called about an hour later to say
that I could collect my card from my local bank branch at the end of the week. The
communication within the system had obviously not understood my earlier point
about being
busy and the inconvenience of the situation. The rising tied of indignation,
frustration, helplessness and seething venom was far too great to contain, and
the unfortunate caller received a tirade describing their incompetence,
insensitivity and inability to organise an escape from a wet paper bag.
What
is the point of this?
What the customer feels or doesn't feel at every
single encounter with a service provider is directly related to the service
providers ability to manage the totality of the experience and customers
expectations. Customer experience is not simply about smiling sweetly, or
keeping an even tone when handling an irate customer. It is about creating,
operationally, transactionally and behaviourally an emotional connection with
the customer that leaves them feeling - no matter what - that they are the most
important person in that moment in time. Addressing the emotional needs,
desires expectations of fickle - I want it now and I'm not going to wait -
customers is difficult and can't be left entirely to the great customer service
skills of the individual. Defining the goal of the intended customer
experience, so that it is differentiated, intentional supports the brand
promise and adds real value to the customer requires a whole company approach
which goes beyond procedural quality standards and protocols.
Before a product or service provider can determine the best way to manage their
customer experiences it has to define and articulate exactly the emotional
reaction they want to create in the customer at every point of contact. Arguably
customer satisfaction surveying and market research will provide the data
required in order to do so. This seems very logical except for the fact that
customer satisfaction measures very often don't give enough, if any, data about
drives satisfaction or indeed loyalty at the emotional level.
Customer experience management requires much greater insight into the drivers
of satisfaction and loyalty. That insight is very likely to demonstrate that a
whole package of different factors lead to a sense of satisfaction and loyalty,
based on a mixture of expectations, needs and reactions to the organisation and
the perceived value received by the customer.
Managing the customer experience, then moves critical elements such as product
and service quality, and perceptions of value-for-money, beyond merely hygiene
factors - the minimum requirements needed to be seen as a ‘player' in the
market - to fundamental delivery mechanisms in creating the sort of personal,
deep seated emotional and psychological connections with the customer that
enable them to feel themselves satisfied and loyal. A consistent,
differentiated, valued and completely intentional approach to managing the
customers emotional response to doing business with the company is the only way
of dealing with the irrational, illogical, intuitive and feelings based drivers
that underpin every buying decision.
Now
then, about that coffee I was going to have.
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